


the baby simulation project

by FandomTales



Category: My Babysitter's A Vampire
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Angst, Pining, Plans For The Future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27031492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FandomTales/pseuds/FandomTales
Summary: For their final Home Ec assignment, Ethan and Benny must care for a baby simulation doll. Throw in a sick Jane, stressed Ethan, and insecure Benny and everything that could possibly go wrong, goes wrong.It turns out alright anyway.
Relationships: Ethan Morgan/Benny Weir
Comments: 19
Kudos: 121





	the baby simulation project

**Author's Note:**

> tw vomiting, illness, and minor reference to alcoholism.

“It’s an easy A”.

Those were Ethan’s words at the start of the Fall semester when he convinced Benny they should be taking Home Ec. However confident he may have been, he was wrong. They were mediocre at sewing pillows, good at lab cleanup, and absolutely dismal at cooking pasta. 

Both of their grades were a tossup at the end of the Semester. The final grade came down to how they’d do on the Baby Simulation Project. When the assignment had been revealed the week before, Ethan had immediately started boning up. He’d read through all the material in the textbook and all the articles on baby simulators he’d found online. By the looks of it, Benny had read about one page of the textbook, and he had read it five minutes before the start of class. Ethan was already a little frustrated with Benny’s lack of interest. In his head, he deemed himself the caretaker of the baby and Benny would just be there to hangout. 

“Quiet down, quiet down. We have a lot to get through,” Mrs. Oppenheimer’s sharp voice yelled, cutting through Ethan’s thoughts. He flinched at the volume and turned to her. She’d opened her ancient notebook and tugged on her reading glasses. “Your partners are as follows and you will accept them with zero complaint. I have tried my best to place you all with your requested partners. If you are not with them, it means they did not request you back. Rejection is a good lesson to go along with parenting.” 

Ethan and Benny were partnered together, of course. They were always partners. But Ethan's stomach turned as Mrs. Oppenheimer read down the list of other partners.

“Ethan and Benny, Matthew and Mandy, Ella and Nick, Oliver and Viola, Noah and Alice,” she said and closed her book. “Move to sit next to each other if you are not already!”

They’d all partnered off girl and boy. If there had been a memo, Ethan had missed it. He didn’t know how he’d ended up so far off the mark of every social cue. It wasn’t that he wanted to be partnered with a girl, he didn’t, Benny was great, he just didn’t relish the awkwardness that would ensure. With a quick glance at Benny, he felt relieved to a certain degree. Benny hadn’t even noticed, and if he had, he hadn’t cared.

Mrs. Oppenheimer raised an eyebrow as if to dare the class to speak. When she seemed satisfied with the silence she sat at her own desk. “The next 24 hours will be a test of your skills in childcare. For those of you who want to be parents, this will be a taste. For those who do not want to be parents, this will be birth control.” The class snickered. “You will have to feed, change, burp, and rock your baby dolls. Any shaking, drops, prolonged hunger, or unchanged diapers will result in crying and point deduction if not resolved quickly. Questions? No? No one? Alright. Line up to receive your doll.”

Ethan took a deep breath and stood up. Benny was gripping the straps of his messenger bag, already read to get into line. His face changed as Ethan looked at him.

“You okay?” he asked, his eyes darting around Ethan as if he’d find blood or bruises, as if there was an external reason to Ethan’s sudden nerves.

“Cut it out, Benny. I’m fine.We can feed, change, burp, and rock a crying, screaming baby doll robot.”

“That’s the spirit,” Benny said, pumping his fist into the air. They got into line behind the others and Ethan pretended not to notice Benny’s scrutinizing gaze. He started explaining a new maneuver he had learned in Call of the Dead in a half hearted distraction, which proved to work well enough, as the front of the line snuck up on him quicker than he’d expected.

Mrs. Oppenheimer stared stoically at Benny and Ethan as they stopped in front of her desk. Then she allowed a small smile. With an appraising look she said, “Our sole same-sex couple this year. How very exciting. The school board wondered if that would be an issue. I assured them not. I said all across America, two mothers and two fathers raising children just as well as anyone else. You’ll prove me right, won’t you?”

Benny said nothing.

Ethan schooled his rapidly returning anxiety and smiled weakly at their teacher. “You’ve got our word, Mrs. Oppenheimer.”

“Let us not have a repeat of the pasta incident, yes?” 

“It was the timer, I swear. It didn’t ring-”

Mrs. Oppenheimer held up a silencing hand. “Babies don’t have timers. They will not run on a schedule. If you forget about them, there will be more consequences than an overcooked dinner.”

Benny grimaced, seemingly overcome by the morose statement.

Mrs. Oppenheimer reached under her tall wooden desk and procured a white basket, about the size of a backpack. Inside it was the baby and all the supplies they’d need to keep from failing. “This will be all, gentleman. Take your baby to your seats.” To the entire class she said, “Take these next ten minutes and get acquainted with your baby and supplies. Pick a name for your baby. Enjoy this final moment of peace and quiet, because at the end of these ten minutes, I will be turning the dolls on.” The amused sneer on her face instilled no confidence in Ethan.

Everyone around them began cooing at the realistic dolls. They were tiny things, dressed in onesies and hats. Ethan was man enough to admit they were adorable as he adjusted the pink hat on top of the doll’s head.

In his peripheral vision, Ethan could see Benny’s eyes roaming across him and the baby. 

“You like it?” Benny asked.

Grinning just a little, Ethan held the doll out in front of them, wiggling it side to side. “I think it’s kinda cute. Don’t you?”

“No, yeah, I do, I guess.”

“Wanna hold her?”

Benny laughed, not unkindly, just out of surprise, like it had shot out of him before he could control it. Ethan must have made a face because the laughter petered down. Benny shrugged. “It’s a doll, man.” 

“A doll that’s going to make or break my grade. So be nice,” Ethan said, shaking the baby in Benny’s direction. Benny held his hands up in surrender, an amused grin spreading on his face. He gingerly took the baby from Ethan and then, as naturally as could be, cradled it in his arms. He swiped a finger across it’s cheek, just to wipe away a streak of dirt, but the gesture was so tender and gentle and unlike anything Ethan had seen Benny do before that it took his breath away. He was man enough to admit that, too. 

“What? Something on my face?”

Ethan shook his head, cheeks heating up at being caught. He ducked out of view and scanned the instruction sheet he found in the basket. “What should we name her?”

“No clue. Pretty sure my parents just found my name in the first 2 pages of a baby book.”

Ethan snorted, but also, he felt kind of bad. “My great- grandma’s name was Clementine. We could call her Emmy, for short.”

Benny raised an eyebrow before examining the doll again. He dangled it by it’s foot and turned back to Ethan. “You want to name a robot baby we’ll have for a day after your dead great-grandma?” 

It sounded kind of dumb when he said it like that, but Ethan snatched the doll away and doubled down. “Yes, Benny, I do want to name the robot baby after my dead grandma. Who knows if I’ll ever have kids? This might be my only chance.”

Ethan had not thought enough about that before it left his mouth. It was true though, to a point. With that stuff they’d been doing the past year: fighting vampires, killer cheerleaders, sewer monsters, he might not make it to twenty, let alone to a time where he could have children and keep them safe from all of that. This could show him what he’d be missing.

Also, it might help him figure out if even wanted kids, should he make it that far. 

And his co-parent was Benny. Go figure.

“That got kind of dark,” Benny said, looking equally taken aback and impressed, knocking Ethan out of the quick spiral his thoughts had taken. “Emmy sounds good to me.”

Ethan shrugged and offered up a half smile just as Mrs. Oppenheimer began to speak again. “I will be turning your dolls on now. Keep in mind, this is not just a project where you either abandon or ooh and ahh over baby dolls. You will be writing a paper after this on the trials and tribulations of parenting. Positive or negative, I am expecting 500 words on your experience come Monday morning.” And with that note, she turned the dolls on.

The wailing was loud. Very loud. Ethan began to wonder, in the blink of an eye, how easy this A would really be. He rocked the doll fruitlessly.

“Don’t shake them, hold them!” Mrs. Oppenheimer yelled over the crying babies and panicking teens. “Gently!”

Ethan moved the doll more into the crook of his elbow, mimicking the football hold he’d seen in the textbook. He looked up at Benny, who seemed uninterested yet again. He’d been acting so weird about this project before but Ethan thought he’d gotten through to him when the actual doll was handed out. Now he was acting like he didn’t care again. Ethan realized as he rocked the doll that he needed him to care, a little bit. Ok, this wasn’t zombies, real life or video game ones, but Benny could extend a little of his waning attention to this. Already, Ethan felt stressed. The baby was slipping through Ethan’s arms with the force of it’s vibrating wails.

Benny leaned into Ethan’s space and swiftly pushed the baby back up into his arms. He  
handed over the baby bottle from the back of the basket

“Wanna try this?” he asked, wiggling it around with a small grin.

“Worth a shot.”

Ethan popped the tip of it into the baby's mouth and the crying stopped. It went mercifully quiet. He couldn't say the same for the rest of the babies.

Mrs. Oppenheimer eyed them wearily. “If you have successfully stopped the crying, you may take leave of the class. The babies will be on from now until Saturday at 3pm, a full 24 hours. You will use the remainder of that day and Sunday to write your essay.” She sneered again. “Enjoy your weekend.”

Ethan stood up, careful not to jostle the baby and start the crying again. Benny took the basket and Ethan’s backpack, leading them out of the school and into the parking lot.

When they got to Sarah’s car, she was leaning against it, filing her nails to sharp points. She glanced up at them over her sunglasses. “You’re out early.”

“Our baby stopped crying first,” Benny said, loading the basket and their bookbags into the backseat.

“Score one for the daddies,” Sarah whooped. 

“Please don’t call us that,” Ethan said, brushing past Sarah to get in the passenger side.

Benny leaned up between the front seats, poking at the baby. “I kind of like it.”

Sarah winked at Benny and turned the key into the ignition. She threw a glance at the baby before she pulled out. “That thing have a carseat?”

“That thing has a name. She’s Emmy. And no, I don’t think so. Does she, B?”

“She doesn’t. Very unsafe.”

“Yeah, that’s not great.” 

Sarah snorted and, mercifully, drove them home with no more comments on the baby or how they were doing as “daddies”.

They barely made it two steps into Ethan’s house before his mom bombarded them with her camera.

“One photo?” she begged. “You boys look so cute! Just one.”

“Mom, please! That’s so embarrassing.”

She waved a hand. “It’s not! One day your kids will get to look at the photos and see where their dads’ parenting skills came from.”

Ethan froze in the living room. He didn’t want to look at Benny. The very idea of looking at Benny sounded like the most awkward thing in the world. This was worse than when his dad thought they were on a cyber date. Worse than when Jane was 5 and asked if Benny would be her big brother when he and Ethan got married. Worse than when Benny’s great Aunt met Ethan and said she always thought Benny might be gay.

Ethan’s mom threw a hand over her mouth and laughed. “Oh, boys, you should have seen your faces. I meant your separate kids with separate partners. I’m sorry, that was bad wording. My bad.” 

Ethan nodded. Benny was so close to him he could feel him exhaling shallowly against his neck. He shivered. Benny was definitely relieved that Ethan’s mom didn’t think they were together. The thought probably grossed him out. That was probably why he was acting so strangely. Ethan had suggested the class and suggested they be partners, and it must have seemed like a very long winded way of coming onto him. It wasn’t, but Ethan’s cheeks were warm again, he could feel it. Shame was making a home inside his chest.

Ethan’s mom snapped a photo that Ethan hoped he’d never have to see.

Back in his room, things were less tense. 

“Where should we put her?” Benny asked, hands on his hips as he surveyed Ethan’s room. He held up a hand, silencing Ethan preemptively. “Got it.”

He pulled open one of Ethan’s dresser drawers and smoothed down the t-shirts inside of it. Then he plucked Emmy from Ethan’s hands and laid her gently inside.

“There,” he stepped back and admired his work like a painter might. “It’s genius.”

Ethan leaned over the drawer. It was a tenuous sleeping situation at best, but better than anything he could come up with. 

“Good enough.”

Benny and him fist bumped and then settled into their seats, Ethan in the desk chair and Benny splayed out on the bed, tossing a hacky sack into the air and catching it over and over again. Ethan turned on his computer and opened up Alien Slayers. They debated the merits of the different melee weapons for a half hour before they got hungry and wandered downstairs for pizza bites.

Ethan was popping them into the microwave when they both went still. There was a distant crying, no doubt coming from Ethan’s t-shirt drawer. Benny let out a long whine, throwing up his hands for dramatic effect.

“Our pizza bites,” he said sadly.

“Our baby,” Ethan scoffed, smacking Benny on the back of the head and jogging past him. He took the baby from the drawer when they got back to the room, rocking it in his arms the way the book instructed. “You’re just hungry, aren’t you?” he mumbled, more to himself than the doll. “Where’s that bottle, B?”

Benny already had it in his hands. 

“Thanks,” Ethan said, faintly surprised Benny had it prepared. With the bottle in it’s mouth, the doll began to quiet down, the cries lowering to small whimpers. Relief must have been radiating from Ethan when the doll fell completely silent. He needed this A and honestly, the sound of a crying baby, no matter how robotic, kind of freaked him out. 

“Pizza bagel time?” Benny said, smiling innocently.

At half past six, Ethan’s dad poked his head into Ethan’s room. “Your mom and I are headed out. Jane’s playing Dance Dance Revolution in the living room. We’ll be back by ten.”

“Got it. Have fun.”

“What’s the theme tonight, Mr. Morgan?” Benny asked, sounding amused.

Mr. Morgan missed any notes of sarcasm and shot Benny finger guns. “I’m taking her on the Scenic Train Tour up in Wilton. Supposed to be very beautiful and very romantic this time of year.”

Benny wolf whistle. “Don’t have too much fun, you rascals.”

Ethan groaned as his dad threw his head back and laughed. Benny had only recently gotten on his dad’s good side and Ethan secretly suspected it was because of the whole mistaken date incident a few months ago. He just wanted his parents to go so he could deal with the embarrassing baby project and Benny in peace.

“Bye, Dad,” Ethan said pointedly.

“Got it, your old dad is gone,” Mr. Morgan let himself out of the room, shutting the door behind him. He poked his head back in. “Call us if you need anything. Have fun with your doll!” Ethan nodded with a close lipped smile.

The night went by smoothly with copious rounds of Alien Slayer, periodic attending to the robot baby, and lots of snacks. Jane had finally stopped playing Dance Dance Revolution, retiring to the couch for the quieter activity of movies. Benny and Ethan relocated to the living room to watch a movie with her, something his parents wouldn’t object to her seeing, or at the least, wouldn’t object after the fact. She had fallen asleep midway through though. 

“She never falls asleep during movie night,” Benny noted, tilting his head to make sure she really was asleep. Ethan crouched down to the same level.

“Weird.”

The movie played on and Ethan began to zone out, fighting to keep his eyes open. He felt like he could sleep at any moment. 

The universe had other plans though. With a start, Jane woke up, her body tense and pale. She ran from the room. Benny and Ethan made panicked eye contact and followed her into the kitchen. She was leaning over the garbage can and Ethan had the foresight to pull her hair into a ponytail before she started to retch. He wrinkled his nose up at the smell but said nothing, not wanting to embarrass or alarm Jane any further. 

“Will you call my parents?” Ethan asked quietly, rubbing Jane’s back with a gentle hand as she continued to throw up Benny left for the living room and returned a few minutes later, his hands clenched. Ethan’s heart sank. “What?” 

“I’m sorry man,” he said. “Your parents said they could be home by nine.” 

“It’s barely 7,” Ethan said. Panic flooded through him. He didn’t know how to take care of Jane when she was this sick.

She slumped back against his knees, and his attention was immediately on her, sweaty and pale, barely recognizable from her usual energetic self. He picked her up and carried her back to the living room, settling her in on the long couch and draping a blanket over her. Benny put a garbage can on the floor by her face. Both boys collapsed onto the couch as Jane fell back to sleep.

“I’m sorry,” Ethan said quietly. “I didn’t realize Jane was gonna be sick. You can take the robot doll back to your place and finish up without me. ”

“And leave you all alone? What kind of friend would I be?” Benny laughed a little, voice light and shoulders relaxed, like none of this bothered him, but Ethan could already feel his own hackles going up. He didn’t like feeling like a burden. Benny squeezed his shoulder. “Don’t think about it man. I can see the gears turning. I’m staying.”

Ethan nodded. He didn’t want to be alone anyway. “Thanks, Benny.”

“Don’t even mention it.”

They watched the movie on mute for another 27 minutes and 8 seconds before Jane sat bolt upright. Ethan leapt forward, lifting the garbage can up to her, allowing her to be sick again. She was less calm this time.

“I don’t feel good,” she cried once she was done.

Ethan rubbed her back, unsure of what to do. “I know, Janie, I’m sorry. Want some water?” She shook her head. “Juice?” Shake. “Crackers?” She reached for the trash can again. Once she was done a new wash of guilt ran over Ethan. Benny took the trash from Jane and jogged into the kitchen. Ethan watched curiously, his hand still running over Jane’s back, his palm pressed to her forehead to feel for fever. Benny came back with the garbage bag replaced. Something warm bubbled up in Ethan’s chest, promptly replaced by cold fear as Jane started to cry again. “I’m sorry, Jane.” He looked up at Benny. “She feels warm.”

“I wish my grandma were here,” Benny mumbles. “Why’d everyone have to be away on the same weekend?”

“And during that stupid baby project at the same time. The only thing that would be worse-” 

The baby started to cry. 

Ethan wondered, for a brief moment, what he’d done to the universe to deserve this. 

He was all for letting the doll cry, but the noise seemed to be setting Jane off. Her wails grew louder. He pulled her into him and covered her ears with his hands. Benny got up, but Ethan knew he didn’t want to play house with the doll and he wasn’t sure if Benny even read the instructions for how to stop it.

“Take Jane,” he said, handing her to Benny, who accepted the limp, crying child and immediately covered her ears the same way Ethan did.

Ethan took the stairs two at a time and tore into his room with fury like fire. He took the doll from the makeshift drawer bed and rocked it as gently as he could with his shaking hands. The cries didn’t stop. He fed it a bottle, and still it wailed. He changed it’s dumb diaper and bounced it and burped it and swaddled it and it wouldn’t shut up. 

After a few minutes Benny called up to him. “Need any help?” 

“No!” he yelled back. “I got it under control.”

A few more minutes of thumbing through his textbook for answers and Benny was calling up to him again.

“It it working?”

Clearly it was not. “I’ve got it,” Ethan snapped. 

For five minutes more minutes he rocked it, hoping it would stop, pleading with fate to end the crying for his sake, Benny’s, and Jane’s. He hoped she was okay downstairs without him.

He wasn’t feeling okay himself. He was so frustrated. He couldn’t comfort Jane and he couldn’t even comfort the stupid doll. Tears brimmed in his eyes as he walked back down the stairs. 

“I can’t get it to stop,” he admitted, his voice cracking. Benny frowned sympathetically and held one hand out for the doll, his other hand wrapped around Jane’s shoulders, keeping her upright as he rocked her side to side. 

“Just go outside for a minute, E. Let me take over.” 

Ethan didn’t debate. He just handed over the doll and marched out of the door, into the cool air. He watched the sun slowly lower in the sky, cooling off and darkening the street. 

Ethan was failing and he hated it. And right now he was failing even more so by leaving his little sister and his best friend alone and falling to pieces outside. He took a deep breath and turned around, tumbling in through the front door.

Ethan had never loved Benny more than in that exact moment. He looked up, innocence and surprise written on his face, his curly hair messy and his clothes wrinkled. He was sitting on the floor, back pressed to the couch with Jane in his lap, asleep with her hand curled into his shirt, and the doll on the floor beside him, mercifully silent. 

Ethan’s face crumpled and he sunk to his knees, bursting into tears.

“Not you too,” Benny said, voice soft and concerned. Ethan cried harder. “Come here,” Benny said, holding up his arm for Ethan to sit with him. “Come here, come on.”

Ethan crawled over pitifully and folded himself under Benny’s left arm, feeling immensely small and tired. Benny squeezed him tight against his side and Ethan was so, so thankful Benny was here, and hadn’t left Ethan to fend for himself. WIthout a second thought, Ethan dropped his head onto Benny’s shoulder, leaning up slightly so his forehead pressed into Benny’s neck. Benny didn’t flinch or shy away. Instead, he leaned over and rested his cheek against the top of Ethan’s head.

The room was darker than it had been before, the sun setting on the town and filling everything with evening glow. A single lamp was on, coloring the room gold. It was warm and quiet in the living room and Ethan could see why, in the comfort of Benny’s arms, Jane was lulled back to sleep.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against Benny’s neck.

He could feel the vibrations in Benny’s chest as he spoke. “Don’t be. You’d have done the same for me.”

“I don’t know if I could. You’re doing so much better than me with all this. Why didn’t you tell me you were so good with the robot baby?”

Benny snorted and the feeling of it against his face made Ethan laugh. He was beginning to feel light again, like all the adrenaline dumped into his body was finally leaving. He realized, amidst the nice and sleepy emotions, that Benny hadn’t answered him. He poked Benny’s side. “Come on, why’d you let me flounder all day with the baby.”

“First of all, you didn’t flounder, you were doing great,” Benny said, so matter of factly that Ethan laughed again. Jane rustled a bit, readjusting in her sleep and when he spoke, Benny’s voice was quieter and more solemn. “I didn’t help because I’m not like you.” 

“Not like me?”

Benny’s heart beat steadily in his chest, that much Ethan could feel. He knew Benny wasn’t afraid. He was just pensive in a way he rarely was for anything other than film theory and magic.

“I wasn’t raised with two parents and a little sister. I don’t have the perfect nuclear family. I was raised by my grandma, who I love, but who didn’t quite fill the hole my parents left behind. You know this already, E, come on.”

“Why does that change how you feel about the doll?”

“It’s like, my mom left. You know it, I know it. She didn’t want kids in general, but especially not with my dad, so when she left it wasn’t like she had anything against me. It still sucks but I was a baby and it wasn’t about me. But my dad,” Benny sighed deeply. “He loves me, but he loves drinking and freedom more than he loves being my dad. So that’s abandonment, twice.” Benny sighed again and leaned against Ethan. “I just don’t know if I could ever be a good parent. I think it’s genetic. So a baby doll assignment meant to prepare us for parenthood doesn’t mean much.”

When he said all of this, he didn’t sound bitter. He just sounded tired. It made Ethan’s chest ache in places he didn’t know could. “You deserved better.” Benny shrugged. “I’m serious, Benny, you’re the best guy I know. And you’re a better parent than me. Doesn’t matter that my parents were around. You quieted a doll and an actual child in like, three minutes flat.”

Benny shrugged again.They were quiet for a long few minutes. Not awkwardly, just in the quiet space between sleep and thoughtfulness. 

“I think we did good together tonight,” Benny said suddenly. 

Ethan could feel familiar heat rising in his cheeks, a blush staining the tips of his ears. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. You made dinner and snacks and kept the doll’s stuff in order and set up Jane’s movies and games. And an eight year old beat me in Dance Dance Revolution four times in a row.”

Ethan swatted Benny’s shoulder and sat up to look him in the eyes. “You also calmed a crying doll and a crying Jane. And a crying me,” he added sheepishly. 

“And now everything is fine again. Score 2 for the daddies,” he said with a wink.

Ethan snorted and leaned back into Benny’s neck. “I’m tired.”

“Your parents are gonna be home soon.”

“I know. What if the baby starts crying again?”

Benny had started to brush Ethan’s hair out of his face, slowly, soothingly, methodically. “Then I’ll put it back to sleep.”

“And if I start crying again?”

“Then I’m gonna wrap you in a blanket like a giant burrito and kiss your forehead and read you stories from Intergalactica volume 4 until you shut up and sleep.”

“You’re gonna kiss me?” 

“Your parents are home,” Benny said, and Ethan could hear a key clicking into the lock. His parents came in, both of them loud and frazzled. Benny held a finger to his lips, quieting them down. He let Mrs. Morgan take Jane from him, her and Mr. Morgan thanking Benny profusely. He brushed it off.

“It’s nothing, really. Ethan thought she might have a fever, just so you know for when she wakes up. I’m gonna take him upstairs now. It’s been kind of a long night.”

Ethan greeted his parents as Benny helped him to his feet. They all bid quick goodnights and Benny wrapped Ethan’s arm around his neck, putting the doll in Ethan’s other arm. He didn’t take it back when Ethan protested.

“I’m tired, I’m sure I’ll drop it.”

“You won’t, Ethan. I know you.”

They made it upstairs and Benny lowered Ethan into the bed. Ethan watched through the low light of his window as Benny swaddled the doll and placed it back in the drawer. He scooted over to let Benny lay down beside him, both of them too tired for the hassle of air mattresses and sleeping bags and blankets. He just wanted Benny next to him.

Ethan curled up against Benny in a way he never dared to before. Benny embraced him back and they lay there, in the darkness, taking deep breaths and falling asleep to the sound of silence.

“You’re wrong you know,” Ethan said. “You’re gonna make a great dad someday. I can’t wait to tell our kids about this.”

Benny snorted. “Just our kids or our kids with our separate partners?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“On if you kiss me goodnight or not.”

Ethan’s heart raced when Benny pulled away and then, perfect and sweet, Benny leaned down and kissed him. Ethan kissed back.

“It's settled then," he whispered against Benny’s lips, "just our kids."

**Author's Note:**

> i know there's not much of a mbav fandom anymore, but i rewatched the series and i was dying to write these boys. if you're here, thanks for reading <3
> 
> kudos and comments appreciated and constructive criticism always accepted :)


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